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| Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and French President Emmanuel Macron in Damascus |
Syria and France announced the launch of a comprehensive cooperation framework to strengthen bilateral relations in a number of areas, and the signing of a strategic partnership in the fields of maritime and air transport and logistics services.
This came at the conclusion of talks between Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and French President Emmanuel Macron in Damascus, in a move that reflects a trend towards raising relations between the two countries to a broader level of economic and investment cooperation.
In this context, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shaibani and his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot announced the launch of a comprehensive cooperation framework, which aims to expand the areas of coordination and partnership between Damascus and Paris, including economic, development and investment files, and opens the way for strengthening cooperation in priority sectors during the next stage.
The French president’s visit to Syria also witnessed the signing of a strategic partnership in the fields of maritime and air transport and logistics services, signed by the head of the General Authority for Land and Sea Ports, Qutaiba Badawi, and the CEO of the CMA CGM Group, Rodolphe Saadé, which paves the way for developing cooperation in the transport sector, raising the efficiency of logistics services, supporting trade, and linking Syrian ports and ports to regional and international transport networks.
These steps come as a continuation of what French President Emmanuel Macron announced after his meeting with President Ahmed al-Sharaa, as he affirmed his country’s readiness to enter a new phase of cooperation with Syria, and revealed an agreement to form joint economic committees concerned with reconstruction files, while expressing France’s desire to contribute to the rehabilitation of the banking sector, and to cooperate in the fields of energy and infrastructure, in addition to working with regional partners, including Gulf states, to support reconstruction projects.
The announced agreements indicate that Syrian-French relations have moved from the stage of political consultations to launching executive cooperation frameworks, which will enhance investment opportunities, support development and reconstruction projects, and open up broader prospects for partnership between the two countries in the coming phase.
